Director Partner Programs & Operations Manager

KONG; Springfield (IL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong is seeking a Director of Partner Operations to design and run the operating model that scales our partner business. You will partner with Ecosystem leadership, own deal registration, crediting, payout, and AI-enabled workflows across Salesforce, PRM, and CPQ.

You will lead annual and quarterly planings, set engagement rules, and define data-driven metrics. Collaborate across Deal Desk, Finance, Legal, and Sales to drive growth.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in Partner or Channel Operations, Revenue Operations, or Sales Strategy & Operations at a B2B SaaS or infrastructure software company, including 3+ years leading partner operations.
• 3+ years operating a multi-type, multi-region partner ecosystem (GSIs, SIs, resellers, distributors, ISVs, hyperscalers).
• Hands-on partner deal execution end to end: resale, referral, cloud marketplace, discounting, order forms.
• 3+ years leading partner planning: targets, quota, capacity, coverage, and channel-neutral crediting with Incentive Compensation.
• Proven track record as a trusted advisor to VP-level Partner or Sales leaders with governance.
• Deep Salesforce fluency plus PRM and BI tools; hands-on use of AI tools to automate ops workflows.

Responsibilities

• Be the operating partner to Ecosystem VP and Partner Sales leaders, overseeing registration, attribution, crediting, and payout.
• Lead annual and quarterly partner planning, targets, capacity, and coverage to maximise partner investments.
• Define rules of engagement, deal registration, attribution, and encoding into systems for automation.
• Own partner lead and deal workflows across ADR, PSD, and AE with routing, SLAs, and prioritisation.
• Partner deal execution with Deal Desk, Finance, and Legal across resale, referral, and cloud marketplace routes.
• Manage cloud marketplace operations across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud; launch marketplaces in new regions.
• Define partner KPIs and provide run-the-business views with accurate data quality.
• Collaborate with Partner Marketing and Marketing Ops to measure MDF and link spend to registered deals.
• Build and maintain the partner operations playbook and onboarding workflows; train ADR and PSD on routing rules.
• Own partner data design, deal registration approval, and alerting for new opportunities; evaluate PRM viability.
• Own the AI roadmap for partner operations and implement automation in Salesforce, PRM, and CPQ.
• Lead a lean, high-output team and drive cross-functional alignment across Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, and CS.

Job description

Are you ready to unlock intelligence?

About the Role:

Partners are one of Kong's biggest levers for AI Gateway pipeline and bookings, and our partner business is growing fast. Kong is hiring a Director, Partner Operations to build the operating model that helps it scale.

You’ll be the operating partner to the Ecosystem VP and Partner Sales leaders, sitting in Revenue Operations. You own how partner business flows through Kong — registration, deal structure, attribution, crediting, and payout — and you bring an AI‑first mindset to how it runs.

Key responsibilities:

Business partner to Ecosystem leadership Serve as the strategic and operational partner to the Ecosystem VP and Partner Sales leaders across theaters. Run an AI-assisted operating cadence — forecast and pipeline reviews, QBRs, and executive reporting — where the prep is automated and meetings go to decisions. Facilitate cross-functional alignment on people, then process, then systems, so changes are agreed before they are configured.

Partner GTM strategy & planning Lead annual and quarterly planning for the partner organization, including targets, capacity, and coverage. Help build a business that maximises the impact of partner investments and resources.

Rules of engagement, deal registration & attribution Own the rules that govern how partner deals are registered, protected, sourced, and credited, including sourced vs. influenced credit, lookback windows, and the line between partner credit and partner marketing credit. Encode them into systems and agents so they apply automatically.

Partner lead & deal workflows Define and own how partner‑touched leads and deals move between ADR, PSD, and AE, including routing, SLAs, and prioritisation. Cover partner event leads, prospective partners, existing partners, and deal registrations, and give PSDs one view of the leads that need their action.

Partner deal execution Partner with Deal Desk, Finance, and Legal to make partner deals easy to structure, discount, and book across resale, referral, and cloud marketplace routes

Partner compensation & crediting Partner with Incentive Compensation on channel‑neutral crediting and referral fees, so sellers choose the best route to market.

Manage cloud marketplace operations Own Kong’s cloud marketplace operations across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, including listings, private offers, channel partner private offers (CPPOs), and co‑sell registration. Lead the launch of marketplaces in new regions, and manage marketplace dynamics with Deal Desk, Finance, and the cloud alliances team, including fees, customer commit drawdown, and partner involvement on marketplace deals.

Performance insights & data quality Define and report the partner KPIs that matter, give every partner leader a run‑the‑business view, and keep partner data accurate.

Partner marketing measurement & MDF Work closely with Partner Marketing and Marketing Ops to define how partner marketing is measured. Tie MDF and event spend to registered deals by capturing funding source on deal registrations, and report sourced and influenced pipeline separately.

Operational playbooks & enablement Build and maintain the partner operations handbook and repeatable workflows, from partner onboarding to software access, including prospective partner intake and ADR and PSD training on routing rules, so every seller knows the process on day one.

Systems & data architecture Own partner data design and routing rules. That includes partner account structure, alignment of deal registration approval with lead routing, and alerts when opportunities open on partner accounts. Evaluate whether the PRM remains the right long‑term fit.

AI & automation roadmap Own the Partner Operations AI roadmap: find the highest‑leverage workflows, build or buy the agents and automations, and measure the hours returned to the field. Own business requirements for partner tooling across Salesforce, PRM, and CPQ.

Lean, high‑output team Build a small team of AI‑native operators, and work across Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, and Customer Success to drive change as the ecosystem scales.

Required Experience:

• 10+ years in Partner or Channel Operations, Revenue Operations, or Sales Strategy & Operations at a B2B SaaS or infrastructure software company,ncluding 3+ years leading partner operations - with direct ownership of deal registration, rules of engagement, and partner attribution.

• 3+ years experience operating a multi-type, multi-region partner ecosystem - GSIs, regional SIs, resellers, distributors, ISVs, and hyperscalers.

• Hands-on partner deal execution end to end - resale, referral, and cloud marketplace transactions, partner discounting, and order form requirements - in partnership with Deal Desk and Finance.

• 3+ years experience leading partner planning - targets, quota, capacity, and coverage and designing channel-neutral crediting with Incentive Compensation.

• Proven track record as a trusted advisor to VP-level Partner or Sales leaders, with the presence to hold a governance line and the judgment to know when to evolve it.

• Deep Salesforce fluency (opportunity design, sourcing fields, reporting) plus PRM and BI tools, and hands-on use of AI tools to automate ops workflows.

Preferred experience:

• Hyperscaler co-sell and marketplace mechanics: AWS ACE and ISV Accelerate, Marketplace private offers, Microsoft co-sell, and Google Cloud Partner Advantage.

• Experience supporting a shift to usage-based or consumption pricing and reflecting it in partner deal structures and crediting.

• Experience leading a team from building processes to running them at scale.

• API, cloud infrastructure, or AI platform experience.

About Kong:

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic — on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit www.konghq.com.